Decca radiogram on BBC's 'Money For Nothing'. - Page 2 - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

'LIVEWIRE?' · 28th Jul 2018, 8:42 am

As an aside, the Decca SRG300 would be about £3000 in today's money (based on the then average wage of <£15 per week vs. today's£480 or so). Given that fact, I'd guess that very few SRG300s were sold, making a very rare item by now, not that this prevents such things from being 'upcycled', or, for that matter, means that they are worth much money nowadays.

emeritus · 28th Jul 2018, 4:08 pm

Upcycling is nothing new. In the 1950's when new furniture was still expensive , dad converted the cases of numerous large woodies into bedside cabinets and the like for us and our relations, rotating by 90° and enlarging the speaker and dial openings in the front for doors. Our semi-retired rag and bone man neighbour used to get lots of them, stripping out the innards for the copper in the transformers and letting dad remove any switches or valves he wanted. At that time, many people were replacing large radios by new TVs and transistor radios, and no-one wanted them.

dave walsh · 28th Jul 2018, 8:43 pm

I took a look in the end but found it was much easier to find from the Celebrity Money for Nothing website as the I-Player didn't seem to have heard of it. Not a particularly attractive item in design or technically. Probably would have been chucked without thought not so long ago. It may be that very few were made because of the cost but perhaps it was the look of it that put people off spending that much as well

The retro "improvement" and stencilling looked quite good I thought, if you were prepared to pay the "new" high price. Inevitably, we are sort of left with a feeling of "The Emperors New Clothes" in this sort of program. A bit like Hastings Pier perhaps!

Dave

28th Jul 2018, 8:42 am	#21
'LIVEWIRE?' Rest in Peace Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: N.W. Oxfordshire(Chipping Norton) Posts: 7,306	Re: Decca radiogram on BBC's 'Money For Nothing'. As an aside, the Decca SRG300 would be about £3000 in today's money (based on the then average wage of <£15 per week vs. today's£480 or so). Given that fact, I'd guess that very few SRG300s were sold, making a very rare item by now, not that this prevents such things from being 'upcycled', or, for that matter, means that they are worth much money nowadays.

28th Jul 2018, 4:08 pm	#22
emeritus Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK. Posts: 5,339	Re: Decca radiogram on BBC's 'Money For Nothing'. Upcycling is nothing new. In the 1950's when new furniture was still expensive , dad converted the cases of numerous large woodies into bedside cabinets and the like for us and our relations, rotating by 90° and enlarging the speaker and dial openings in the front for doors. Our semi-retired rag and bone man neighbour used to get lots of them, stripping out the innards for the copper in the transformers and letting dad remove any switches or valves he wanted. At that time, many people were replacing large radios by new TVs and transistor radios, and no-one wanted them.

28th Jul 2018, 8:43 pm	#23
dave walsh Dekatron Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex. Posts: 5,817	Re: Decca radiogram on BBC's 'Money For Nothing'. I took a look in the end but found it was much easier to find from the Celebrity Money for Nothing website as the I-Player didn't seem to have heard of it. Not a particularly attractive item in design or technically. Probably would have been chucked without thought not so long ago. It may be that very few were made because of the cost but perhaps it was the look of it that put people off spending that much as well The retro "improvement" and stencilling looked quite good I thought, if you were prepared to pay the "new" high price. Inevitably, we are sort of left with a feeling of "The Emperors New Clothes" in this sort of program. A bit like Hastings Pier perhaps! Dave